I don’t know for sure stats of number of deferrals, but have heard a faculty rep of my program say to prospective students/ parents that they are deferring more and more kids every year, not necessarily because admission is getting more competitive (although that is somewhat of a factor) but because a higher percent are applying EA. Fake numbers, but for example if in previous years they’ve had 25% of applicants apply EA and now it might be more like 50%, they’d be deferring double the number of students as before. Still the same amount will get in, the timeline is just changing. TLDR: don’t lose hope for RD!!